Tennis Nutrition: No More Gluten For Novak Djokovic!

Novak Djokovic has always been rather talented, but this year he’s blown away all expectations, becoming the top-ranked player in the world.

His routing of Nadal earlier this season only cemented into stone what we already knew about him: He’s an incredibly tough player to beat with a tremendous amount of potential to do even more.

The only person who transformed more than Novak this year was Bumble Bee or Optimus Prime from the hit action series.

But let me ask you, could it be that his astonishing success in beating living legends of the sport (…seemingly at will) and almost completely turning the often fatigued Novak into a champion with endless amounts of energy, isn’t completely due to his extraordinary ground strokes and serve?

Could there be something going on behind the scenes that we, for lack of a better term, could “steal” from him? Besides his uncanny (…stadium rocking) dance moves, that is.

Well, as it turns out, there is indeed a secret weapon that the celebrated Serb has been stealthily concealing within his arsenal, one that has remained under tight lock and key until now.

Now, to tell you the truth, it was seriously like pulling teeth trying to get this information out of Novak.

When the current world No. 1 started noticing a sizable difference in his play as a result of this new secret weapon, Djokovic kept his lips sealed, declining to talk about his new training routine with anyone outside his camp.

“I can’t talk about it,” Djokovic said at the French Open, “because it’s private.” I mean, who could blame him, right? He wouldn’t want this golden nugget of sorts to get out to tennis players everywhere, so they too can take advantage.

But since then, and as recently as a couple days ago, the tennis world finally was able to pry a tiny (…yet powerful) amount of info out of the champ pertaining to a widely unknown fact that has been contributing handsomely to his awesome on-court output.

This is what we got…

Per the advice of brilliant nutritionist Igor Cetojevic, Novak has completely removed bread from his diet; no wheat, no barley, and no rye. That’s right, No-vak is now No-Bread and all the better for it.

You can trace the effect that Cetojevic has had on Djokovic by looking at his tennis performances of the last couple years.

Now, Novak was no slouch by any means, but he kept lagging in third place behind Federer and Nadal, always seeming to tighten up during the biggest of moments. And in some instances, he was even forced to retire. Bummer!

It was as if his body wasn’t in the tip top shape necessary to compete on such a high level, at least for an extended amount of time. As he came to find out, that was exactly the case.

Cetojevic is very knowledgeable about Chinese medicine and its focus on the importance of your stomach and food when it comes to overall health and fitness.

But he didn’t stop there, Cetojevic and Djokovic have added something that was never mentioned in an “ancient chinese proverb:” A SCIO bio-feedback machine. A what?!?

Yeah, I never heard of it either. Simply put, it’s a machine that connects subjects to computers to study their body’s reactions to certain foods.

It’s a pretty safe bet that Confucius or Lao Tzu never got the chance to play with this little gizmo.

Tennis Nutrition and Gluten

Either way, Cetojevic found a wildly high amount of gluten in Djokovic’s body whenever he consumed bread.

If you’re not familiar with gluten, let’s just say that it’s as disgusting as it sounds. It’s a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye bread, and its effect on the body is different depending on the individual.

Some people notice small intestinal issues when eating gluten, while others become more sluggish and sedentary, suffering from chronic fatigue. Some folks experience rashes and mood swings.

Either way, the effects of consuming too much gluten are generally never good. And if you’re an athlete (…especially a tennis player), your higher caloric intake puts you at a much greater risk of having to deal with this performance sapper.

So, is your performance lagging? Are you a gluten glut, eating large amounts of breads? Are you noticing fatigue earlier than usual? The answer to this just might lie in the hands of Sunbeam and Little Debbie.

Bolster Your Tennis Nutrition by Going Gluten Free

Try going gluten free, or at least gluten light, and give Hostess the Heave-Ho. Close up shop on Pepperidge Farm. Tell the Keebler Elves to find a real job. And maybe, just maybe, you might start seeing the kind of season that Djokovic is having.

I tell you, your tennis nutrition and health are definitely worth taking a few less croutons on your next chicken salad, wouldn’t you say?